1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fingerprint verifying apparatus, and more particularly, to a fingerprint verifying apparatus of a small size and a method for operating the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Verification of a fingerprint is carried out for entrance management. For this purpose, a fingerprint verifying apparatus is used and is of a fixed type. The fixed type fingerprint verifying apparatus is large in size. Equipment accommodating such a large-sized fingerprint verifying apparatus is also large in size. In order to reduce the equipment in size, the fingerprint verifying apparatus must be made small.
In conjunction with the above description, a fingerprint image input device is disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent application (JP-A-Heisei 6-176137). In this reference, the fingerprint image input device is comprised of an illumination section (1) for irradiating illumination light approximately vertically to the envelope surface of a finger. An imaging section (2) receives the light reflected and scattered by the finger. A finger putting section (3) has a piercing hole (9) in a position where the finger is putted. The illumination section (2) is comprised of a lens (6), a reduction section (7), and an image-formation section of an imaging element (8). The illumination section (1) irradiates illumination light from a plurality of light sources provided under the piercing section (9) of the finger putting section (3). Instead, the light from a point light source is reflected by concave mirror arranged below the light source. A semi-transmissive mirror is arranged between the piercing hole (9) and the illumination section (1), and the imaging section (2) is arranged in a lateral direction under the finger putting section. The light is irradiated from the illumination section (1) to the finger through the semi-transmissive mirror, and the light reflected by the fingerprint pattern is reflected by the semi-transmissive mirror, and then received by the imaging section (2).
Also, a fingerprint verifying apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model registration No. 3,032,679. In this reference, light from a green light source (LED) irradiates a glass plate to which a finger is pushed. A fingerprint image is detected from the reflected light by a CCD camera and compared with true fingerprint images. A sensor is provided in the neighborhood of the glass plate to detect the existence of the finger.